The kicker, though, is that Wednesday the U.S. and Canada will play at the same time. Given that it's going to be against different teams, this is a bad thing for hockey fans in both countries; anyone who wants to watch the games live; and media in both Russia and North America. Here's the full schedule for that day:

It'd be surprising if it weren't so predictable; throughout the group round, there were plenty of double-booked games that started at 7:30 a.m. ET. It was understandable enough, though, because the games didn't matter as much.

Now? These are elimination games. Why we can't have staggered quarterfinal start times—even if only by a half-hour—is a mystery, unless 3 1/2 hours is the bare minimum of time necessary to get the arena turned around. Even that would be a lame excuse, though; start the first game 15 minutes earlier and the second 15 later.

Either way, have, get your remotes/streaming devices ready, and try to pay actual attention to at least one of the games, rather than half-assing it with both.